Statue
of Christopher Columbus
Journal Square

Designed by sculptor
Archimedes Giacomontonio of Jersey City, the ten-foot bronze statue
of Christopher Columbus mounted on a white marble shaft was dedicated
on October 15, 1950. It has been described as showing Columbus "in
a militant pose, holding a cross in his left hand and pointing westward
with his right." The statue not only honors the explorer but also
the Italian-American residents of Jersey City.

Giacomantonio
was born in Jersey City in 1905 and attended Dickinson High School. He trained at the da Vinci Art School in New York and the Royal Academy
in Rome, Italy. Giacomantonio also sculpted the statue of Abraham Lincoln
"The Railsplitter" for the lobby of Lincoln High School in
the 1930s. He maintained a studio in Jersey City at 194 Fairview Avenue. President Harry Truman commissioned the artist to sculpt a statuette
of Woodrow Wilson for the Truman Library in Missouri. Giacomantonio later sculpted
a bust of President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the military academy at
West Point.

The statue of Columbus was originally
located on one of the traffic islands on the Journal Square Bridge across from
the Loew's
Jersey Theater. As part of the renovation of Journal Square, begun
in 1998, the statue was moved to a nearby site in the new pedestrian plaza at the southern entrance to the PATH Transportation Center.